Author Archives: Bob Evans

Bernie Blew It

Senator Bernie Sanders (I) failed for the second time to take over a political party of which he was not a member. The reasons for his failure are not something that is easily testable. Every election is a one-off with many unique variables but I think there are few reason assumptions that can reached.

Sanders did quite well in the 2016 primary battle against Hillary Clinton but the vote level he achieved were not an indication of his own or his ideas popularity but a mixture of those who supported him for his stands and those voting for him because he was not Clinton. I don’t think Bernie ever quite understood just how much of his success, and that success was still less popular than Hillary Clinton’s, was an expression of a desire for someone, anyone, other than the former Secretary of State. This led Bernie into thinking that for 2020 he had a much higher base to build upon and feeds into his misguided plan of attack to win the nomination, a popular political revolution.

When asked throughout this extended campaign season how he was going to enact his seeping and revolutionary policies Sanders responded that his candidacy was going to energize and mobilize a vast number of people who had never participated in the political process. This wave of new voters would sweep into power not just Sanders but an entire new class of elected officials that shared his philosophy and would remake the face of American politics.

Bernie’s army never materialized at the polls.

Without his mythical army of new voters Sanders exposed as a factional candidate and he failed to adapt to this. Instead of seeing that his core message and support was limiting his ability to grow his voter base and win the nomination Bernie ‘doubled down’ on his message and relied on stubbornness and his own power of personality to take over the Democratic party. You can respect him for staying committed to his ideals, to refusing to show any sign of compromise, but in the Democratic party as it is currently constituted that is far from enough to win majority support.

None of this underscores the effect Sanders has had on American politics. He has dragged the Democratic party to the left and the policies proposed by other candidates and getting wide support are much further to the left than anything since before the rise of Reaganism and had Bernie himself been willing to meet the party part way he may have done better but he did not.

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To Hold onto Power the GOP is Willing to Kill You

We are living through a global pandemic and to gather in large crowds is to take a risk to your life a risk that grows greater with your age. Wisely, many states, though not all, have issues orders and guidelines for the population to stay in their homes, to avoid close proximity to other people, and take other precautions to void becoming infected or passing the virus to others. 2020 is also an election year and recognizing the importance of both our electoral and health civic duties many states have postponed their primary and other elections while also instituting procedures allowing people to vote by mail ensuring that both duties are honored.

Except for Wisconsin.

Wisconsin held an election this week, April 7th, 2020 to be precise. The Governor, Tony Evers, a Democrat, had called the legislature into a special session to deal with the electoral issue during their pandemic crisis. The Republican controlled body gaveled themselves into session and then immediately disbanded the session without taking any action or debate at all. They were equally unwilling to make voting by mail any easier even as the virus continues to spread throughout the nation and their state. Milwaukee normally has 180 polling station for an election, due to people fears of coming out and gathering in large numbers so many volunteer polls quit that the city was forced to conduct its election with just five polling stations.

The GOP sees this election as critical. The state is filling a spot on the Wisconsin Supreme court and if the conservative can win the seat it will cement a conservative majority on the panel. It is axiomatic for conservatives that low turnout elections benefit the Republican party and apparently, they are willing to do anything to depress turnout and win including placing the voting population in peril of a deadly infectious disease.

Here is Wisconsin Speaker of the Assembly Robin Voss and how he appeared at a polling station to advise the public it was ‘incredibly safe’ to show up to vote.

Photo from CNN

This portends badly for the November elections. The popular vote has been trending against the GOP for several elections and rather than adjusting their stands to conform with the public they would rather disenfranchise and kill voters. I hope this blows up in their face. I hope that in Wisconsin the voters brave enough and committed enough to show up and stand for hours with other people are the ones dedicated to seeing the perversion of democracy ended. Only time and the vote total will tell.

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Captain America: Was He Always Worthy?

This post will have spoilers for Marvel’s Avengers movies.

I recently started a re-watch of the MCU’s Avengers and Captain Americafilms. This has coincided with the one-year anniversary of the release of Avengers: Endgame and people are sharing videos of crowd reactions to key moment from that movie. A popular moment to share is when Captain America in the climatic battles against Thanos wield Mjolnir. It is a moment when the audience reacts wildly and enthusiastically and even after having seen the movie several times both in the theaters and at home one that still stirs my own blood.

Earlier in the cycle of MCU movies, specifically in Avengers: Age of Ultron, at a celebratory party various characters attempt to lift Mjolnir but the enchantment upon the weapon specifies only one who is worthy can wield the hammer and with it the powers of Thor. Character after character make the attempt and Thor’s hammer remains utterly immobile. When Steve Roger, Captain America and in many ways the moral compass of the MCU, tries the hammer rocks and Thor immediately reacts with apprehension but Cap doesn’t lift it and Thor relaxes.

The question becomes; When did Cap become worthy? Or Was he always worthy and chose not to lift the hammer at the party?

It can be argued that he was always worthy and felt the hammer rock under his grip and did not lift it to save his friend embarrassment. (Not to mention that Cap lifting it early in the movie would have undercut Vision’s wielding of Mjolnir and proving his worthiness to the Avengers when they doubted him.) Steve is a decent fellow and would be very considerate of Thor’s pride but I am not persuaded by this line of argument. I think at the time of Age of Ultron Cap was nearly worthy but not yet there.

In Captain America: Civil War Steve paternalistically keeps the truth of the murder of Tony Stark’s parents secret from Tony and this lie ruptures the Avengers. At the end of the film in his letter to Tony he confesses that really he wasn’t protecting Tony but himself. Steve too scared to confront the hard truth with Tony. It is this moment of self-realization that clears that last of the moral clutter away from Steve’s nature and I think allowed him to be worthy for that amazing moment in Endgame.

 

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Everything Old is New Again

Back in the golden age of Hollywood the movie studios owned the entire economic chain of a film. An MGM movie would be conceived, written, produced, shot, and edited on studio property and then the film would be shown to the paying public at an MGM theater with all the proceeds going back to MGM and this was true for all the major studios. Minor studios and independent production companies had a devil of time getting their product to the public because even if there were independent theaters the studios used their enormous leverage to lock up the auditoriums for their own product. You want the next hit movie from 20thCentury Fox? Well then you have to take all Fox films including the lower half of their double bills know as ‘B’ features. This came to an end with the Paramount Decree in 1948 when using its anti-trust powers, the US Government forced the studios to sell off their exhibition businesses. In November of 2019 the Department of Justice announced it was withdrawing from the Paramount Consent Decree.

AMC Theaters is the largest movie theater chain in the world with more than 8200 screens in the United States alone. March 17th, 2020 AMC closed all of its theaters due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. April 2nd the Hollywood Reporter posted that the credit rating for AMC theaters had been downgraded amid concerns that it was unable to withstand the financial shock of the crisis and the closing of all theaters.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Disney doesn’t like anyone getting a cut of their cash.

I suspect that given that AMC was not in the best financial shape before the pandemic killed the summer released schedule and with the DOJ withdrawing from the Paramount Consent Decree that they will swoop in with their vast economic might and buy AMC theaters from the Chinese company that currently holds majority control. They probably will not lock out films from other production companies, after all why not get their beaks wet by tasting the profits from Universal and their other competitors?

I don’t know what final form the exhibition business will take but I do know it is going to change.

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Sunday Night Movie: Murder by Contract

Apparently, the Criterion Channel recently dropped a bunch of noir films into their streaming service. Yesterday as I browsed the ‘recently added’ queue I stumbled across noir after noir and the titles were unknown to me. Under the limitations of a time and temperament I selected Murder by Contract as the one to watch Sunday night.

Hailing from 1958 Murder by Contract is a low budget quickly produced film noir centered on Claude and man with large dreams and no empathy. Claude leaves the respectable life of an upright citizen and becomes an assassin for the mob in order to secure the funds for his dream home. Curious for a character of this type and profession Claude rejects firearms for most of his contracts and quickly establishes himself as a killer of unusual competence. The mob sends Claude out west to Los Angeles where he meets up with two local hoods, George and Marc, for the most challenging assignment of his cruel career where nothing goes as anyone planned.

Though the word is never used in the film Claude is presented as a sociopath. He professes to have taught himself to have no feeling but it is more likely that this is a justification for the character than an actual achievement. His intellect and cool demeanor carry him through most of his assignments unperturbed but as this final contract goes awry the illusion of his self-control crumbles.

Shot in seven days Murder by Contract presents the material in a spare and unadorned style. Aside from Vince Edwards as Claude who would later go on to portray Doctor Ben Casey from 1961 thru 1966, the aspect of casting that leapt out to me was that four future Star Trek (the original series) guest actors also appeared in the crime drama, Phillip Pine, who played the genocidal Colonel Green in the episode The Savage Curtain, is the hoodlum Marc, Kathie Brown plays a secretary who moonlights as an escort and she appeared in the episode Wink of an Eye as Deela one of Kirk’s alien romantic conquests, Joseph Mell who plays Harry also was in the pilot for Star Trek as a trader from Earth who sparks Pike’s interest in the Orion slave woman, and finally David Roberts as a Hall of records clerk but got a promotion to doctor for the episode The Empath.

While lacking the depth of characterization found in classic noir such as Double Indemnity and with a jazz inspired soundtrack that bordered on irritating, Murder by Contract still proves to be an interesting entry in the sub-genre from the end of its classical period.

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The Two Visions of The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Recently I have been watching video essays from the YouTube channel Implicitly Pretentious about the thematic nature of the MCU and its characters which inspired a re-watch of the Avengers cycle of films. My original intention had been to, over an extended period, watch just the four Avengers films but that fell apart once I completed The Avengers and decided to include the Captain America films as part of this cycle making the list of movies: The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Solider, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and finishing the series with Avengers: Endgame. Since I have seen all of these movies, I am not committed to watching any single film in a single seating but rather breaking the individual films up over two or more nights. I am currently in the midst of Civil War.

What has been fascinating to watch is the different tones struck by the different guiding visions of the MCU. While the entire project is under the hand of Kevin Feige the MCU has been under the influence of two principle visions and they are contrasted in this series of films.

Joss Whedon wrote and directed the first two Avengers films while the Captain America movies and the final two Avengers films were directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. (Side note: when you see the ‘&’ symbol in an American film’s writing credits it means those people worked as a team on the script and where the word ‘and’ connects writers it mean one wrote and then another came in and rewrote the screenplay.)

Implicitly Pretentious suggested in one of his essays that Joss Whedon’s view of humanity is one of cynicism and I think that he is not far off with the assessment. Ultron’s assertion that everyone creates what they fear and their own destruction even including children as something to be feared and something that is a threat is an inherently cynical philosophy. Whedon often coasts his cynicism with a heavy icing of snark and humor. His dialog is snappy, witty, and quotable but underneath it lies a dark view of the world and humanity’s place in it.

With the Russo brothers, Markus, and McFeely there is a much more positive interpretation of humanity. There is a nobility that fights in the face of evil and this is a theme returned to several times in their cycle of films. Consider Captain America’s effect on non-enhanced characters in two scenes by the two teams of filmmakers.

In The Avengers Captain America needs a local police officer to follow Cap’s direction to safeguard trapped civilians and set a parameter to limit the immediate damage. The cop incredulously asks why should he listen to Cap? At that moment alien warriors attack Cap and with an impressive display of strength and skill Cap dispatches the several opponents. The police office reverses his opinion and implements Cap’s orders. The most charitable interpretation is that officer is impressed with Cap’s skills as a warrior and follows the order of the stronger fighter. A less forgiving view would be that the officer is intimidated by Captain America but in neither case is the officer inspired.

Captain America: The Winter Solider presents us with a different view on Cap and his effect on others. Cap and his small team infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ to prevent the launching of HYDRA’s plan to subjugate the world. Cap has no idea how many of the SHIELD agents are actually ones loyal to HYDRA, but he makes an impassioned plea over the loudspeakers for people to rally to his fight, to stand for freedom and against the coming tyranny. Throughout the base people unlimber arms and take up Cap’s fight but the most emotional moment is when an unnamed character who is not a fighter sits with a gun literally at the back of his head and under the threat of his immediate murder refuses to comply with a HYDRA agent’s command. He is terrified but holds fast to what is right because he has been inspired. The unnamed character returns in Avengers: Age of Ultron but Whedon’s script and direction treats the him most unfairly.

There is a clear and distinct difference between these two visions of the MCU and there is no doubt I prefer the one presented by the Russo brother and Markus & McFeely.

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Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula

Four years ago, I took a chance, and convinced a friend of mine to also roll the dice and went to see this South Korean zombie movie Train to Busan. It turned out to be the best zombie movie I have ever seen, beating out 1979s Dawn of the Dead by the slimmest of margins. Dawn is the classic film that launched the zombie apocalypse genre and is a terribly on-point satire of American consumerism, however Train has a best set of characters and story, but not by much.

Last weekend I watched the anime prequel to Train to Busan, Seoul Station. Not as groundbreaking or as tight at Train it still maintained a high level of quality and made for an excellent companion piece to the first movie.

Now we are finally getting the sequel to Train to Busan with the lengthy title; Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula.

Set in the years following the outbreak of the fast zombie plague Peninsulatakes place in a Korea that has become an apocalyptic nightmare. Directed and co-written by Yeon Sang-ho, who directed the original, Peninsula looks to widen toe scope away from the claustrophobic setting of Train into a wider dysfunctional world.

The truth of the matter is that most of the time sequels are a disappointment but I have my hopes and in these dark times we all need hope.

Peninsula is set for release this year, 2020, and is likely to be available as a Video on Demand rental.

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Life’s Most Vital and Most Difficult Skill

There are a lot of skills to master in life some are more important that others but there’s one in my opinion that rises above the rest in significance and sadly it is the one a vast majority of people find difficult to acquire.

At my, what used to be in pre-Covid 19 times, regular writer’s groups meetings we take turns reading aloud 1200-1500 words of our work and then sit silently as everyone present takes turns giving you notes and feedback on the project. On any one piece opinions are bound to vary, sometimes quite a bit, but each and every time there is feedback that is dead on target, some element where intent or choice has gone astray and I’ve fouled up what I was trying to achieve as a writer. The natural and very human tendency is to reject that which is painful to turn defensive against the critique. It’s always possible to justify why the feedback is wrong and not the piece. It’s much harder to admit error, accept that that truth, but without that vital step there can be no improvement.

That’s’ the life skill I am talking about, no specifically learning to take writing critique but learning to admit that you are in error. This is something that transcends political philosophies. Few people are willing to admit error. I see it over and over again. The leaps of logic, the twisted arguments, the reframing’ of facts all to avoid facing that an earlier call, decision, or position was in fact the wrong one. Sadly, until such an acceptance is achieved it is impossible for a person to learn from that error and move on to better and greater things.

I am no more immune to this failing than I am to Covid 19. I try and struggle to keep an open mind about things and accept that I may have held terribly wrong position in the past. I like to think that doing so with my writing has helped me leverage this skill in other areas but I am also painfully aware how easily we deceive ourselves. This is not a skill that is learned and then nothing more is required. It takes constant vigilance because that easy route, that path of least resistance where you justify the error rather than admit is always there and it always looks more inviting than the long hard road of truth.

 

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A Few Collected Thoughts About the Current Crisis

My week of intense book promotion has ended and so today I’m going to toss out just a few thoughts about our current pandemic crisis.

 

There’s no point beyond racist blaming to insist on calling it by some derivation of its geographic origin. It has an official name that’s not hard to use, Covid19. To quote my own novel,

Do not hide your intention behind a facade of ‘accuracy.’

There is reason to mistrust some of the data from China but that doesn’t absolve any of the bungling and lies by our own government and politicians.

Inaction at the start of this crisis, when experts were calling for swift and important steps to be taken and the scope was becoming clear, is the reason we’re deep in trouble. This was never going to be easy. It’s a novel virus and we’re all susceptible but months ago procedures could have been put in place, testing capacity increased, and vital equipment produced ahead of the crisis. None of that was done because it clashed with what our leaders wanted to hear and once you can no longer utilize hard truths you’ve already lost.

 

This is why it is always vital to vote.

We are stuck with a narcissistic immature vengeful man-baby as our president because a handful of people didn’t get their preferred candidate. Hell, I was deeply unhappy with our selection in 2016 but it was painfully clear who could operate better in a crisis. Everyone who voted for Trump or cheered his victory shares in this disaster but also to blame are those who were ‘unenthused’ to vote against him. Voting is a responsibility, a civic duty, not a lark subject to whims and moods.

 

This will go on for awhile. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be painful, if we try to take an easy route out it will end up being more painful and more deaths. Save lives, stay home.

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The Blog Tour’s Final Stop

The final stop on the blog tour for Vulcan’s Forge happened yesterday March 29th with Jessica Belmont. She apologized for being a day late but hell, in these hectic, crazy, and frankly frightening times a date getting slipped is fully understandable. The pull quote from here review that I am using is:

Tension, intrigue, and action galore, Vulcan’s Forge was a compelling read

It has been very gratifying watching the response come in from the blog tour. The book has gathered responses from enjoyable to enthusiastic with none of the reviewers giving it bad marks or savaging the piece. That will come. It will eventually gain dreaded 1-star reviews at Amazon, Goodreads, and other places but that is how things should be. Nothing is a good fit for everyone.

This has been a long road to publication and it’s been surprising that it was my odd little SF-Noir that was the first novel to cross the finish line. This is an example of how you should not self-reject. I wrote this book for myself, first. It was what I wanted from a science-fiction noir but I wasn’t certain that others clamored for the same thing. I didn’t write this to the market and I think because of that it found its success.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the blog tour, to those who pre-ordered and have ordered the novel in these dark times you’ve given me a ray of warming sunlight.

 

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